Postal Service To End Saturday Mail Delivery In August

The U.S. Postal Service plans to stop delivering mail on Saturday in August, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe announced Wednesday. Package delivery will not be affected, and the post offices will remain open on Saturdays.
Photo Credit: The Daily Voice

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BEDFORD, N.Y. — The U.S. Postal Service plans to stop delivering mail on Saturday in August, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe
announced
Wednesday.

Beginning the week of Aug. 5, the Postal Service will not deliver letters, catalogs, periodicals and other first-class mail on Saturdays.

Package delivery will not be affected, and mail addressed to post office boxes will continue to be delivered on Saturdays. Post offices currently open on Saturdays will remain open on Saturdays, including those in Mount Kisco and Bedford.

The move to a five-day mail delivery schedule is intended to cut costs. Over the past several years, the Postal Service was considering cutting package delivery to a five-day schedule as well, but officials said they have seen a 14 percent volume increase in package delivery since 2010 and project continued strong growth.

The Postal Service expects to generate cost savings of $2 billion annually, once the plan is fully implemented.

“The Postal Service is advancing an important new approach to delivery that reflects the strong growth of our package business and responds to the financial realities resulting from America’s changing mailing habits,” Donahoe said.

Donahoe said market research conducted by the Postal Service and independent research by major news organizations indicates that nearly seven out of 10 Americans supported the original proposal to switch to five-day delivery for both mail and packages as a way to reduce costs to return the organization to financial stability.

And, officials guess that support for this approach will likely be even higher now that the Postal Service plans to maintain six-day package delivery.

Residents were abuzz Wednesday on Facebook with opinions about the announcement.

Katonah resident and real estate agent Jim Newhouse proclaimed the change a "sign of the times" on his Facebook page, while Mount Kisco Facebook user Richard Hooker said he doubted the real financial efficacy of such a move. "In the end," he said, "how much will they really save?"

Postal Service officials said they made the announcement more than six months in advance of implementing five-day mail delivery to give residential and business customers time to adjust.

In the near future, the Postal Service will publish specific guidelines so customers can learn about the new delivery schedule.